Cuomo To Announce Tough New Gun Laws For NY State

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expected to announce tough new gun laws Wednesday that would be among the most stringent in the nation in response to continuing gun violence across the country and the massacre in Newtown, Conn., last December.

Sources told CBS New York on Tuesday that Cuomo was negotiating the regulations with members of the state Assembly and Senate that could include more stiff penalties for committing crimes with a gun and further restricting the firearms that citizens across the state can own.

“It’s a very divisive topic,” Cuomo said. “There’s a lot of energy on both sides. Some people are vehemently against, some people think we’re out of our minds for not passing it. Gun control is highly [a] political, politically contentious, situation. It is polarizing.”

The package of laws would include new restrictions on assault weapons, limits on the number of bullets permitted in a magazine, and much more tough penalties for committing a crime with a gun than those already existing in New York.

“There’s just too many incidents that are happening that you think could be avoided if there were stronger regulations about it,” said one mother from Larchmont, New York. “Absolutely, I mean you can’t even send them to school now. Now my kids have police in front of their school. I mean you wonder how far it’s going to go.”

Cuomo was hoping to finish the negotiations on the laws in time to announce them as part of his state of the state speech before the New York legislators on Wednesday.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expected to announce tough new gun laws Wednesday that would be among the most stringent in the nation in response to continuing gun violence across the country and the massacre in Newtown, Conn., last December.
Sources told CBS New York on...